Upholstery for seat backs



Feb. 25, 1936. w GEDR|$ I UPHOLSTERY F R SEAT BACKS Filed MaLrch 25, 1935 Patented Feb. 25, 1936 UNITED STATES UPHOLSTERY FOR, SEAT BACKS William A. Gedris,

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Application March. 25, 1935, SerialNo. 12,837

2 Claims.

This invention relates to upholstery, being more particularly-concerned with a novel construction and method of applying upholstery to the back members of theatre seats or seats of a similar character. It is desirable in theatre seats that the back shall not be of plain wood against which the one-using the seat will rest, but that the face of the back be upholstered with padding covered by a suitable fabric and applied to the back of such. theatre and like seats. Seats of such type are-now and have been for a considerable period largely equipped with an upholstery. attached to the face of the seat back.

My'invention is directed to a very practical, simple and economical construction and method of securing the upholstery to the face of theseat back, without weakening the structure of said back, whereby the thickness of the back may be decreased from what has been heretofore re- 20. quiredt and yet have the same strength as previous backs which, in the attachment of the upholstery have had parts cut away and removed with a resultant weakening, that is, leaving an effective thickness of the back substantially equal to the thickness of the back which I use in my invention; though made up originally thicker in order that portions may be cut away.

With my invention the upholstery is secured to a metal plate and the plate applied to and permanently secured to the face of the back in a very novel and practical manner and without cutting away any portions of the back in the process.

An understanding of the invention and the advantageous results obtained thereby may be had from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a seat back having the face of the back upholstered, the remaining portions of the seat structure being shown-in dotted lines.

. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the back with the metal plate applied thereto, the upholstery padding and covering fabric being removed.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged view showing the rear side of the plate.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section illustrating the manner in which the upholstery, padding and fabric are attached to the plate before application to the supporting seat back.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section showing the manner in which the metal plate with the upholstery thereon is applied to the back by merely hooking the same over headed pins, or nails, and

Fig. dis a similar section illustrating the last step of the process, consisting in driving the headed pins ornails into the seat back and thus firmly and permanently attaching the upholstery in place.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawing.

Theatre seats or seats of like character are carried on spaced apart standards, indicated at I in dotted lines in Fig. 1, the seat proper also being indicated in dotted lines at 2. The back is located between the standards at the rear portion thereof and suitably secured in place, extending vertically and with an inclination to the rear In my invention a wooden supporting back member 3 is provided which in practice is made of several veneer plies glued together and curved into the desired shape. This wood member 3- may be readily sawed to the proper outline.

With my invention and method of applying upholstery to the face or front side of' the back, I' use a sheet metal plate 4 of the proper size and outline such that its edges lie short distances within the edges of the back member 3. In this plate a plurality of slots 5 are stamped, preferably a number near the upper edge of the plate and a like number near the lower edge of the plate. It is to be understood that the number of the slots used and their positioning and location may be greatly varied without in any way affecting the invention which I have made. The slots 5 are similar to key-hole slots having an enlarged portion at one end. Embossed portions 5a are formed adjacent each of the slots 5 between the enlarged portion and the narrowed portion of the slots. In addition around the plate and adjacent all edges thereof pointed tangs 6 are pressed rearwardly, the points of the tangs extending inwardly from the edges of the plate.

On the front side of the plate 4 the upholstery is placed, this consisting of suitable padding 1 covered by a fabric cover 8. The fabric cover at all edges, is turned around the edges of the plate and hooked over the tangs 6, being suitably stretched in such process that when engaged by the tangs a smooth padded upholstery is formed. The plate being of thin sheet metal, with some resilience, it may be bent slightly so that its opposite edge portions may be brought a short distance toward each other, the upholstery attached, and then the plate released thereby pulling the fabric covering to a smooth and taut condition.

A number of headed pins or nails 9 are parbrought into conjunction with the heads of the pins 9 so that all of the heads pass through the enlarged lower portions of the slots whereupon the plate may be forced downwardly a short distance and the shanks of the pins or nails entered into the narrowed portions of the slots 5. This step of the method of securing the upholstering member in place is shown in Fig. 5. The heads of the pins or nails 9 are far enough out from the adjacent front face of the back member 3 that connection of the plate 4 over said headed pins is readily and easily accomplished. The final step is to strike the upholstering member over the head of each pin or nail '9, driving the" same into the back member 3 and bringing the metal plate 4 snugly against the front side or face of the back member 3 as shown in Fig. 6. The head of each nail 9 being positioned behind the embossed portions 511 prevents the upholstering member from shifting to a'position where the pin heads will come free of the slots 5. The location of the pins or nails 9 will be known such that by using a hammer indicated at Ill in Fig. 6 the pins may be driven in their full extent.

With this construction the upholstering member, consisting of the thin sheet metal plate 4, with the padding 1 and the fabric cover 8 thereon, 'is snugly and firmly secured to the back member 3 and in a very practical, simple and inexpensive manner. It is evident that no screws or other fastening means are required which have heretofore been used by inserting through the back member 3 from its rear side into a Wood back member upon which padding and a fabric cover have been mounted. Nor is there any need to recess the front side or face of the back a distance equal substantially to the thickness of the wood member heretofore used and for which in the present invention there has been substituted the thin metal plate 4. Therefore, there is no necessity of covering and disguising heads of screws or other fastening members which without such covering or disguise have shown from the rear side of the back member 3 in the previous upholstery constructions largely, if not universally used. The thin metal plate 4 has ample strength to carry the upholstery and is firmly and snugly secured to the back 3 which is of sufficient strength to withstand all strains put upon it.

The invention is one of very practical importance. By its use the cost of manufacture of a theatre seat is very appreciably reduced with a saving of material and with the production of a better product. The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

I claim:

1. In combination with a seat back, an upholstering structure comprising, a sheet metal plate, padding and a fabric cover thereover located at the front side of the plate, said fabric cover extending back of the plate and connected therewith, and penetrating means, each having.

a head .at its front end, connected with the seat back at its front side and extending forwardly and through the metal plate for securing the upholstering structure over and at the front face of the seat back, said penetrating means being susceptible to the impact of a tool through the padding and its fabric cover.

2. The herein described method of upholstering a seat back which consists in providing a seat back, driving a plurality of headed pins partly into the back at the front side thereof, providing an upholstering member consisting of a metal plate, padding and fabric cover for the padding at the front side of the plate, said plate having key-hole openings for the passage of the 7 

